Revenge Season 4 Episode 3 – TV Review

I’m not sure Victoria can pull off “redneck” very convincingly.

Has it really come to this? Rich ladies pointing shotguns at each other?

Thank God. I thought we’d never make it.

It’s a whole new world.

TL;DR Victoria indoctrinates Charlotte into her purely evil plan to have David eliminate Emily; David tries to murder Emily; Emily does not bring swift, crushing retribution against Charlotte; Daniel finds out nobody wants to give him a job; Victoria scams Margaux for some quick cash.

Well, not so much “scams” as much as “takes advantage of an idiot with a bad haircut.”

So we pick up where we left off: with Charlotte trying to burn Emily to death in the Stowaway. As predicted, Jack shows up in time to save her. When he learns the truth (that Charlotte is a fucking psychopath), he is disappointed that Emily doesn’t want to take… revenge. Emily just wants to talk to Charlotte instead, but that goes south because Charlotte is currently sheltering with Victoria, who has rediscovered the usefulness of firearms. Victoria is keen to keep Emily away, because she doesn’t want to blow the truth that David Clarke is alive (she tells Charlotte, though). Victoria uses hers and Charlotte’s difficulties at Emily’s hands to convince David that she’s gotta go. David goes beyond the call of duty when he tries to knife-murder Emily in her sleep, but Nolan interrupts. Meanwhile, Victoria goes to Margaux in a last ditch effort to rejuvenate her finances (it works), and Louise has sprung herself from lock-up and is on the warpath. She goes after Daniel, who himself is depressed over being persona non grata when it comes to business, and getting kicked out of his hotel suite for not paying his bill. Elsewhere, Jack and Emily grow closer; Hunter (Jack’s partner) flirts with Emily; and Charlotte isn’t really sure who to ally with.

I’d be happy if she was a-lying dead in a hole, honestly.

Putting Emily’s ridiculous altruism with Charlotte to the side for a moment, this is a devilishly productive episode of Revenge.

God I hate her for it, but Victoria’s escalating plan to trick David into taking down his own daughter is top-tier, primetime soap operatics. Emily may have gone to some untoward lengths to exact her revenge on the Graysons, but Victoria has decided to go the route of Actually Evil.

Take a bow, you monster.

Why I hate this episode:

But seriously, fuck Victoria. I’d like to be generous and imagine that Victoria doesn’t intend for him to literally kill Emily, but she can see David is clearly unhinged. He chloroform’d and kidnapped you just to say hello, Viccy. She can’t be at all surprised that he would sneak into her bedroom with a knife at night. That’s fucked up.

Charlotte feels remorse for acting like a pyromaniacal murderess, but she’s still a neverending weight on everyone’s shoulders. She’s wishy-washy about what Victoria’s doing with David, but she also doesn’t want to speak to Emily about it. Ideally, Charlotte would finally make a single decision that wasn’t entirely pathetic, and then promptly get killed off somehow. Redeem and die, baby. Impress me.

Emily’s decision to forego revenge on Charlotte is infuriating. Not surprising, though. Revenge has already established that Charlotte is the only moral chain Emily has left. So as much as I wish for her demise, she is a necessity to give Emily a reason to hang around. God, she’s shit.

Margaux is getting fucked by not one, but two Graysons. What happened to the clever, sneaky little bitch from last season? Now she’s all over Daniel, offering to put her own recent success in jeopardy just to help him get a job. And she can’t get the cheque book out fast enough when Victoria bats her eyelashes, calls her “daughter,” then puts her hand out for a, well, handout. Go get your old hair and shake off the yoke of Grayson oppression, Margaux.

Oh, and Emily has some big, melodramatic “Go on, shoot me” moment when Victoria has the gun on her. Emily claims she meant it. Stop it.

But it’s not all bad:

I was kind of impressed that Jack was ready to go fuck up Charlotte. He didn’t say it in so many words, but his angry disappointment at Emily’s insistence she not be harmed implies that he wanted retribution in some form. Good. That little cunt has been fucking ridiculous towards Jack. Firstly, kidnapping his baby son just for shits and giggles. And then burning his goddamn business and home down while trying to kill her sister. Go get her, I say. You’re a cop. Do it.

Speaking of cops, Officer Hunter continues to show his interest in Emily. She finds him at her car after she leaves Victoria’s redneck cabin, and he’s a mixture of snooping and flirting. Which is perfect for this show, really.

Obviously, the highlight of the episode is David Clarke infiltrating Grayson Manor on a mission to unkowingly kill his daughter while she sleeps. When he sees her face, it appears to register to him that something is up. I’m not sure if he’s just got a conscience and was like “Shit, I don’t know if I can murder someone I don’t know in their sleep because my skank-bitch girlfriend from 30 years ago goaded me to,” or if he was more like “Shit, that’s my daughter.” Either way, Nolan, who happened to be at the monitors for his new Grayson Manor surveillance system, comes in and shoots at him, causing David to flee. Neither Emily nor Nolan saw his face, though, so his identity is safe for now.

On the other side of the unhinged former prisoner scheming coin, Louise is directing her attentions at Daniel after Victoria proved her unworthiness by blowing her off. She poses as a down and out little rich girl with a bitch mother. Which isn’t far from the truth. It isn’t far from the truth for Daniel, either, and I think he sees an easy mark in getting a job as her new financial advisor. It’s a scheme-off.

I’ll give some points to Daniel for fucking Victoria off earlier in the episode when she comes to visit him (and beg for money). That’s what you’ve earned, girl.

Like Jack, Nolan is far less forgiving of Charlotte than Emily. Is it time to get the Jack/Nolan duo back together for some side-project revenge?

Victoria uses Charlotte’s tale of woe with Emily to ramp up the convincing of David to help take her down. Charlotte shows she has some humanity left when she gets uncomfortable with Victoria outrageously overselling Charlotte’s own virtues. I’d say there’s hope for her yet, but we all know that’s a lie.

Oh, and I assume that Emily will assume that her mystery assailant was a hired assassin from Victoria. Once assassins are on the table, all bets are off.